Archive for August, 2011

When you’re thinking about what items to offer as prizes for your organization’s raffle, it’s a good idea to consider prizes that have something to do with the organization itself. Not only will this help you to start generating prize ideas more quickly, but it is also likely to generate larger raffle ticket sales.

For instance, say you are organizing a raffle for a non profit that helps get kids involved in sports. Who is most likely to be interested in helping out such an organization by buying raffle tickets? People who believe that sports can play a positive role in someone’s life. In other words, people who are interested in sports themselves. So make the tickets even more tempting by offering sports-related prizes.

Make sure to order custom raffle tickets on which you can list the prizes you’re offering. That way, ticket buyers can show their tickets to friends and the prizes are listed right there for them so they don’t need to remember specifics. A little bit of free marketing.

Well here’s a fantastic idea: The Red Sox Foundation is raffling off a chance for golfers to take a swing at Fenway with Hall of Famer Jim Rice. The opportunity has to be darn near irresistible for Bostonians with a penchant for putting. The proceeds of the raffle go to the foundation itself, plus, if the golfer can hit a target out in center field a $50,000 donation will also be made to the charity in the winner’s name.

While this particular prize may not be one your organization can manage to offer, you can certainly generalize the prize IDEA and come up with something great along the same lines that you can offer. Is there a local landmark in your area? Or just a place that’s iconic to local residents? Offer them a chance to do something really unique in that location. Something that they wouldn’t normally have the opportunity to try. You’ll be selling raffle tickets like there was no tomorrow.

Did you know that some states have specific laws regulating what information you need to print on the raffle tickets you sell? In New Hampshire, for example, the law states, “All raffle tickets shall be printed with the name of the charitable organization thereon, the date and place of the drawing, and the prize or prizes to be awarded and the amount of the donation.”

That’s why you need to make sure not just to research whether or not raffles are legal in your state (for help with that, check out our post on State-by-State Raffle Laws), but also the specific details of the law. It may be a pain to read through all the small print, but you’ll be kicking yourself if you don’t and you get entangled legally.